Police

Our work for the Police

Police leaders are being asked to make increasingly difficult decisions about risk, performance, wellbeing and affordability. ORH combines workforce planning with a deep understanding of operational policing to help police services quantify demand, uncover hidden workload and make confident resourcing decisions

Supporting Future Planning

Police forces are facing rising demand, growing operational complexity and continuing pressure on resources. At the same time, leaders are expected to make critical workforce decisions that balance performance, officer wellbeing and affordability.

Effective workforce planning depends on understanding the reality behind the demand, yet much of the work that consumes time, creates pressure and drives risk is not captured by traditional reporting systems.

Process Evolution helps police forces recognise how work is really delivered across their organisation, uncovering hidden workload, operational pressures and sources of risk that are often invisible in traditional reporting. By combining operational insight with tailored analytical models, we provide clear evidence to support workforce decisions and inform investment planning and service redesign.

Some of the questions we help police services answer include:

Do we have the appropriate workforce to meet current and future demand?
Where are workload, pressure and risk building across the organisation?
Which teams have sufficient capacity, and which are operating beyond sustainable levels?
How might future changes to demand, processes or legislation impact staffing needs?

Every policing function operates in a different environment. Rather than relying solely on benchmarks or generic staffing ratios, we work directly with officers, staff and supervisors to understand how work is carried out in practice. This ensures that our recommendations are grounded in evidence and reflect the operational realities of modern policing.

Areas of Focus for Police Services

Police leaders need confidence that resources are aligned to demand, operational priorities and the needs of the communities they serve.

In an environment of rising demand, finite resources and increasing scrutiny, police leaders need to be sure that resources are being deployed where they will have the greatest impact.ORH supports police services across a wider range of operational functions. Our experience is particularly concentrated on four core operational areas:

Response and community policing

Identifying both visible and hidden workload to determine how resources should be deployed across locations, shifts and service demand. We help leaders understand workload, capacity, proactive policing opportunities and the pressures affecting frontline performance.

Investigations

Assessing investigative demand, caseload complexity and operational risk to identify sustainable workforce requirements, reduce pressure on investigators and support better outcomes for victims and communities.

Contact management and communications centres

Examining demand, workload and workforce requirements to ensure that resources are aligned to call volumes, operational priorities and service expectations.

Specialist operations

Applying tailored analytical approaches to specialist functions, recognising that different policing activities require different workforce models, performance measures and resourcing strategies.

No two police services are the same. While these areas represent the large proportion of our policing work, our approach can be applied to almost any policing team, unit or function where leaders need a clearer understanding of workload, demand, risk and workforce requirements.